Motorama 2011 Live Coverage

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Welcome to RC car Action‘s live coverage of Motorama 2011! Motorama is the largest motorsports event in the country and it’s all under one roof at the Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, PA. At Motorama you can find multiple car shows, arena cross racing, oval racing and RC is a major part of the event. I’m here all weekend long giving you updates and all the inside, behind-the-scenes info…and I’m getting in on the action and fun. My Losi TEN SCTE is charged up and ready to race. Best of all, I’ll be working with Losi’s own Adam Drake on my setup. Keep checking back all weekend for photos, videos and much more!

Day 1 of Motorama is in the books and I think it’s safe to say that everyone is having a great time. The RC tracks are up and running and everyone is getting their practice laps in and getting ready for the qualifiers tomorrow. The nitro track is slightly smaller than last year and the ventilation is still an issue. There’s a thick cloud of nitro exhaust and dust in the air. There are fans blowing fresh air in but it doesn’t seem to be helping much. Most drivers, pit men, and turn marshals are wearing gas masks to filter the air. The nitro pit area is very big and almost full of racers. Some are doubling up and running eclectic as well.

The electric track is a good 10 to 15 min walk from the nitro track and things are calmer there. Unlike the nitro track, the electric track is slightly larger than last year. The track surface is very bumpy and it feels like you’re walking on a soft brownie when turn marshaling. The electric track is a little more challenging due to multiple poles around the area. Next to the electric track is a rock crawling section. There are multiple piles of rocks and a trick scale area.

While at Motorama, I’ll be racing my Losi TEN SCTE in the 4wd short course class. I am running it right out of the box and am very happy with its performance so far. I figured that I’d have to change up the setup for this track but it feels right at home on the bumpy track. The stock tires were working well while the track was still damp but after the third round of practice and a day of drying time, it was a little on edge. I grabbed a set of JCocepts Bar Codes and just finished gluing them up for the first round of qualifying tomorrow.

Day 2

Day two of Motorama is over and it was an exciting day. The doors were open to the public and the place was packed. There was a lot of time for everyone on the RC side of things to walk around and see all the cool stuff going on. The two car shows had some great cars and trucks and some unusual vehicles. You can buy all kinds of t-shirts, hats, sweatshirts, helmets and more. The Robot wars are pretty exciting those guys are pretty serious about their vehicles. I’d have to say that the biggest attraction by far is the dirt bike/quad racing. There were people lined up all day to get into the arena and on the track with their machines.

The nitro guys were running in round three when I left and I think there’s a good chance that they will make it through by the end of the night. On the electric side, things were a little slower. As far as the tracks go, it looked to me that the nitro track was starting to blow out making it hard for some to navigate. On the electric track, it’s starting to get more and more slick as the track dries out.

As far as my day of qualifying goes, I did very well in the morning. My TEN SCTE was pretty fast and my JConcepts tires were dialed. I managed to come in second overall by the end of round 1. My second qualifier didn’t go as well and I need to step it up in the morning when we get to round three so stay in the A main.